Following Football All Around The Globe

Wining Streaks and losing streaks and statistical streaks, the World Cup has had it share of all kinds of streaks. If you were eighty years old, you might have had a few streaks of your own! Still, just for fun, here are some of the record streaks that just might be broken in 2010!Read more..

Spain football team made their first appearance in 1934 and have shown up intermittently since then. They turned in their best World Cup performance to date in 1950 when they went home in fourth place after managing wins over powerhouse teams such as the USA, Chile and England to take a spot in the semi-finals. Over the years, the team has encountered a road-bock on their road to a Cup win… the semi-finals.

During Spain’s first World Cup in 1934, the team did manage to make it to the quarterfinals only to be ousted by Italy. In 1954 they missed qualifying thanks to lady luck, since it was coin toss after a tied game with Turkey that kept them out of contention for the Cup that year.

When Spain hosted their first World Cup Tournament, in 1982, many had hoped to see fortune smile upon the home team. They were disappointed. Spain managed only one victory in front of the home crowd, squeaking into the second round before elimination.

1986 was kinder and they managed to work their way into the quarterfinals before elimination. In 1990 the lost in overtime in a second round match with Yugoslavia. Then, once more in 1994, they again faced elimination in a match in the quarterfinals. In 1998, they didn’t fare nearly as well and never made it out of the first round, but four years later they made it to the 2002 quarterfinals again.

All of this see-sawing from finals to quarterfinals to early elimination, and even a coin toss that prevented their making the tournament, Team Spain has yet to taste the sweetness of World Cup victory. With a talented team, they had their hopes set on “high” as they entered this year’s FIFA World Cup in South Africa. With one win and one loss so far in this year’s tournament, they are holding their own in their group. Still, they have a lot of obstacles between them and their first tournament win.

Spain National football team went ahead to win the football World Cup 2010. In 2014, the team was not able to defend its world cup title.

Spain football team is still among best ranked teams in the world while also holding the UEFA European Championship 2008 trophy and 2012 edition. Their consistent play and outstanding performance has thrilled the football world. Here is a little bit about them:Read more..

Along with twelve other teams, the Brazilian National Team was privileged to participate in the very first World Cup tournament held in 1930. They are also the only team to appear in every World Cup since its initiation and have won it more than any other team. Their five victories came in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002. During their long history with the Tournament, the Brazilians have accrued a few unusual firsts and experiences. One player in particular, Leonidas De Silva, had some remarkable moments in the early years of Cup play. Here are just a few:

In 1938, during a Finals match against Team Poland, one of the Brazilian team members doffed his shoes because he preferred playing barefoot. Leonidas (the player in question) was ordered by officials to put his shoes back on. After doing so, he went on to score four goals in that match and was the top scoring player of that year’s Cup, scoring eight goals in four matches.
That’s the sort of thing that makes one wonder how many goals he might have scored if he’d been allowed to play with bare feet. (Side Note: It was widely reported during the ’38 Cup that Leonidas had a side job as a professional private eye!)

In the 1938 World Cup, the coach made a mistake and left Leonidas off the roster for a semi-final match against Italy. The team lost that match. Then, a couple of days later, in the third place match-up, it was Leonidas who helped Brazil win by scoring two goals for a four-to-two win over Team Sweden.

Football is nothing without a spice of most shocking and unexpected results. The upsets in football World Cup have always been brouhaha for the football fans. ‘You never know’ is the most common phrase which is used by the football fans whenever it comes to weak teams playing stronger ones. The upset defeats of the strong teams elevate the popularity of the weaker team and bring it into the media limelight. Saying that weaker teams are a source of sizzle in group matches makes sense.Read more..

They are part of the old Guard. The Paraguay National Football Team was one of the original thirteen teams to compete in the very first World Cup Tournament way back in 1930. The “Guaraníes” managed one win and one loss in that first Cup series, but it was not enough to send the through to the semifinals. In subsequent appearances, both in 1950 and 1958, the Paraguay team failed to make it past qualifying. To this date, their best World Cup performances were turned in during the 1986, 1998 and 2002 Cup tournaments.

In 1986, Paraguay’s coach, Cayetano Re was sent off during their first round match against Belgium for, it seems strange to say, standing too close to the field. He was the first coach ever to have suffered the indignation of being sent off during the World Cup finals.

Then, in 1998, the Paraguay’s squad featured a talented young goalkeeper named Jose Luis Chilavert. This young man’s play caused fans and opponents to take notice. While their unbeaten run was finally stopped by a second round defeat to the team that would go on to win the tournament, France, it still left them feeling good about the progress they were making.

The second round, however, proved to be their obstacle once more in the 2002 World Cup, and they faced elimination at that level once more. The question is, can they make it to and then, perhaps, past that second round in this year’s World Cup in South Africa?

After 12 years of absence from the big football event, they came back to 1998 France world cup with the inspiration of their show-stopper Jose Luis Chilavert. After more than 10 years, Paraguayan football team has become the recognized face in the top football teams. Paraguay has always enjoyed their success in South America with their solid defense and fast front runners. Even though, they showed some good progress during the 1998 and 2002 appearances, the guide of 2006, Anibal Ruiz was unable to guide them out of group B where they had a tough fight from Sweden, England. Due to this reason, Paraguayan decided to replace him with Gerardo Martino, an Argentinean tactician.

The Paraguay National Team had to be encouraged that, in their opening game against the defending Champs, Italy, they managed to finish up with a draw. Their coach, Gerardo Martino, was quick to point out that keeping Italy from scoring a win was almost as good as a win over a lesser team and proved that their squad had great potential. After all, they beat both Argentina and Brazil in qualifying. Under Martino’s guiding hand, the team from Paraguay may bear watching. Paraguay failed to make it to the final four in both 2010 and 2014 football world cups.

Soccer or Football is a team game that can be played with eleven players in a team and two teams compete by scoring highest number of goals in a game to win a game of a football. In short, football is a game of scoring goals. FIFA (Federation of International Football Association) arranges the world cup of this game at every four years of span and to win the competition, teams try to score as much goals as can. Let us look at some of the individuals that have created various records related to scoring goals in football world cup.

1. Miroslav Klose has scored 16 goals in his 24 football world cup final appearances. He represented Germany in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 world cups.

2. Ronaldo (15 Goals in World Cup Finals): This Brazilian holds the world records of scoring highest number of goals in the final match of football world cup and the magical number is fifteen.

4. Just Fontaine (13 Goals in 6 matches in Single World Cup Tournament): A French player who scored total thirteen goals in one world cup tournament is a world record for scoring maximum number of goals in a tournament. He has scored 2.17 goals per match in the world cup so far.

5. Pele (12 goals in 14 matches) This Brazilian legend player has represented his team in four football world cups from 1958 to 1970.

Other goal scoring records in World Cup Football:

1. Ali Daei (35 Goals in overall world cup matches): The hard fought Iranian has a record of scoring highest number of goals in the overall world cup played by any player and the total goal he has scored is thirty-five.

2. Oleg Salenko (Five Goals in a World Cup Match): Salenko is a Russian player who holds the world record of scoring maximum number of goals in a single match and the tally is to five goals in a single match.